


Leaving Home

by TheLightFury



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Cruciatus, Grief/Mourning, Malfoy Manor, Moving On, Moving Out, Other, POV Draco Malfoy, Sectumsempra
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-04-12 16:09:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19135513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLightFury/pseuds/TheLightFury
Summary: Draco says goodbye to his childhood home, and finds the experience very painful.Possible content warning/trigger warning for grief, moving out, the loss of family home, and the emotions that go with that.





	Leaving Home

It shouldn't be this difficult. It shouldn't be so painful. But still, a clawing anguish was tearing his heart to pieces. As Draco’s trunk floated to reside with the rest of their belongings, emptiness seeped in, invading his very core. His throat constricted in a most undignified manner.

Everywhere he turned, different echoes of the past drifted around the ancient building, haunting him. The shrieks of his old professor as she died, the screams of pain being ripped from his own throat whilst under the Cruciatus curse, the smell of death and decay that now seemed embedded in the very foundations of the house, and the pervasive feel of dark magic in the air. The memory of his family home was forever tainted. 

Yet still, The Manor held more than the past few years. As he wandered the now barren rooms, the laughter from his eighth birthday party drifted to his ears, he saw the peacocks and peahens, strutting proudly in the garden, the ghosts of lords and ladies attending one of the many parties his parents hosted, danced around the ballroom, and he smelled the tantalising scents of food wafting through the house, beckoning him to the kitchen. 

The memories mingled together painfully, flawlessly bleeding into one another, a perfect bittersweet cocktail of emotion. At the height of The Dark Lord’s reign, Draco had endlessly dreamed of the day he’d be able to leave, be free from the toxic atmosphere, escape and start a better, happier life... But he’d never considered that one day he wouldn’t be able to come back. 

Malfoy Manor was his home. Throughout all of his years, in all the possible scenarios he’d considered when attempting to prepare for the outcome of The War, it had never occurred to him that he could lose his ancestral residence, the place he’d grown up, treasured, and always envisaged as part of his family. But now, with his father in prison and his mother moving to France, the Manor was to be sold. 

He moved through the house, chasing a sense of comfort to ease the goodbye. None was to be found. Tears pricked in his eyes as they surveyed the shell masquerading as his home. No longer did he belong in these halls. No longer was the bedroom he’d grown up in, his. Without the decorations, the belongings, the house elves, the promise of evenings of fun and business to attend to, The Manor was just a building, cold and foreign, filled with empty promises and broken dreams. 

He stared at each miniscule detail in every room, documenting the place he’d loved so much, until he was convinced the grief would tear his chest open like the Sectumsempra curse. Unable to bear it for a moment longer, he removed his cloak from the hooks by the door for the last time, striding out, as Malfoy’s should, to meet his mother; confident, calm, collected.

Still, in the seconds before they were transported away, he gazed at his home one last time, allowing the tears to silently spill down his cheeks, just for a moment. 

He might find a new home, build a new, better life in the future. But at that moment, Draco was convinced he was leaving a piece of his soul behind forever.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. This is close to my heart as I'm having to say goodbye to my home at the moment, so I hope you enjoyed it. Come and say hi to me on Tumblr @april-thelightfury115 :)


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